Smells like team spirit

Notre Dame plans to unveil fragrance line

SOUTH BEND -- Notre Dame fans already can dress themselves from head to toe in Fighting Irish gear. Soon they'll be able to spritz on one of the school's official scents as well.

The Cloudbreak Group, which has developed New York Yankees fragrances, is working with Steiner Collectibles to develop a line of fragrances for Notre Dame, according to Michael Low, the university's director of licensing.

ND Gold Eau De Toilette, designed for men, and Lady Irish Eau De Parfum will be available this fall, Low said, adding that 3.4-ounce bottles are expected to retail for $62. He said other fragranced products include women's shower gel and body lotion, men's hair and body wash, aftershave balm, hand sanitizer and lip balm.

Low said the fragrance opportunity was brought to Notre Dame via its relationship with Steiner Collectibles, which is a university-licensed company.

"The University of Notre Dame's practice is to license fewer companies than most other universities, and we encourage our licensing partners to develop innovative products of high quality that are not commonly available in the marketplace," he explained in an e-mail.

"While Eau De Toilette and Eau De Parfum have not been previously licensed, the university has previously licensed other lotions and sanitizers," he said. "This is the first opportunity the university has had to work with a company whose sole focus is the development and distribution of uniquely scented products."

Sports Business Daily, an online publication, broke the news about the Notre Dame fragrance line earlier this week. It reported that Cloudbreak has built the Yankees scent into a brand worth more than $10 million since rolling it out last spring.

The Christian Post also reported on Notre Dame's fragrance plans, noting that this isn't the first time businesses have tried to bottle a university's essence.

Masik Collegiate Fragrances, founded in 2008, sells the "signature scents" of 11 universities, including Louisiana State University, Penn State University and the University of North Carolina.

The Chicago Tribune published an article about Masik's then-30-year-old founder Katie Masich in 2009.

The company's notion was to use scents that would cause people to reminisce about campus flowers, trees and school colors. For example, plum, golden bourbon and honey were used to evoked Louisiana State's school colors of purple and gold. Penn State's fragrance combined blue cypress and cracked pepper vapor for men and white patchouli and vanilla for women. North Carolina's scent is a Southern mix of orange, jasmine and violet.

There's no word yet on what scents are used in the Notre Dame fragrances.

Masich, a chemical engineer, told the newspaper back then that her company was receiving 30 to 60 suggestions each month for new scents.